Saturday, November 29, 2014

The Road To Adepticon: RSN Scout Mission to The New Digs!

Greetings and happy belated Thanksgiving to all! SeerK here with a special report. I was fortunate enough to be in Chicago for the holiday. Before dinner and before the Lions crushed the Bears, I made a short trip out to the Renaissance Marriott Schaumburg Convention center, Adepticon's new location. I know as gamers we fear change, so I thought I would take some of the fear and mystery out of this major change to Adepticon. The Schaumburg Prime Offensive, our Firestorm Armada Tournament at Adepticon, sold out in 3 hours! We were floored and are working with Adepticon for more space so as many as you guys that want to play can. Thanks for the support community! We are looking forward to delivering a great and fun event! To start I am going to give you the lowdown on the new location.

Its the RSN's job to gather intel and get the lay of the land before an invasion. I walked the halls and scouted the surroundings. The only thing left at the convention center was a sense of anticipation and a friendly heads up........prepare yourselves.....we are coming! So lets get down to it!

Main Entrance

The Hotel

Main Entrance interior

Driving up to the Hotel I was struck by how big it was. It looked as tall as the Westin and a lot wider. The outside was well decorated. Parking is off to the side and around the rear of the convention center. The front of the hotel has 30 minutes parking spaces and a wide area thats covered for loading and unloading vehicles. The main entrance is a large rotating door. When you enter you would think you are coming into a swanky mansion with twin staircases leading up to a an elevated hallway that connects to the hotel proper. This is where is can get a bit confusing. Registration, the restaurants and such are on the second floor to the left side of the building. If you stay on the ground floor you can get to the Convention center by turning left. You can use the stairs in the main entry way or there is another set of stairs inside the hotel to gain access to the 2nd floor. This place is way to fancy for War Gamers. I hope they are ready for the storm that is coming. I digress though.

The 2nd floor or main level as I said has the registration desk and Sam and Harrys Restaurant. This looks to be like Harry Carry's and Holy Mackerel at the Westin, so if you have "Fancy Dinner" one night at the convention like our group does it looks like you will not have to go far. There is also a bar of decent size and a Cafe type place that has deli style food and simple breakfast stuff. More importantly is has coffee! I dont know about you but some days you just need a good cup of Joe before hitting the Convention Floor. Hair of the dog does not cut it some days.

Sam and Harrys

The all Important Onsite Bar!

I asked the front desk a few questions before leaving just so I could make sure of some things and alleviate some fears that some people have expressed. First off there is indeed a hotel shuttle despite what their website says. It runs from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm and has a 3 mile radius for travel form the hotel. This is more than enough range as there is a lot of places close to the hotel. There is also a trolley that runs a route from the convention center to several places around the area. The schedule and route is on a sign near the doors of the convention center closest to the parking Lott. The one thing that really hit me was how big this thing is. The hotel is huge and I have not even gotten to the convention center. The convention center is fully connected to the hotel via a long hallway which is also where the main ballroom is. This hallway has the main doors to the convention center and is also bi level. There is an elevated walkway that connects the 2nd floor containing all the restaurants and registration area to the main bulk of the convention center. The ground floor is the only way to hit the main ballroom and is also the main entrance from the outside to the Convention center. There is a drive up for drop off and pick up, but parking is off to the side of the convention center.The Convention Center

2nd floor walkway to the convention center

The convention center is massive. If the information I found is accurate Adepticon now has literally double the space it did at the Westin. This means everything is going to have a lot of room. Although they have added a lot of new events, classes and such I do not think we are going to have that crowded feeling that was starting to really pop up at the Westin. The halls are all wide and spacious. Sadly I was not able to get into any of the event halls, but the floor plans and information I found in the convention center planning guide showed what the square footage was. The Schaumburg Prime Offensive is taking place in the Adventure Event Hall. its was about 32,000 square feet!

Event Halls by the Main Ballroom

The Convention center is two levels. It has Stairs in the middle by the main entry way from the hotel. It also has escalators going up at the entrance closest to the Parking lott. The ATM machines are located by the entrance closest to the parking lott. There is an event hall there as well as a coat check. There are two ATMS.The Halls are really big. This place is going to make the 2200 or more people who attend Adepticon seem not so numerous. Here are a few pictures of the interior before I move on to the places Around the hotel.

Looking down the convention center from the middle of the 2nd floor

Staircase access to 2nd floor of the center.

The "Lobby" to the two halls towards the back. The Schaumburg Prime Offensive is in the one with the TV above it.

Ground floor looking toward the Entrance

Main Ballroom entrance from the outside Hotel is to the right.

View from the Main Entrance of the Convention Center closest to the Parking Lott

Wild Berry Pancake house

The Surrounding Area
As I said this place is huge. Luckily it is in the middle of a lot of Restaurants and places to get supplies. It is also in walking distance of the Embassy Suites the first backup hotel to the convention. There is a office Building and the entry road in between it and the convention center. It was about a 2 minute trip by car so I think its about a 10 minute walk. There are no restaurants in walking distance to the hotel though other than the ones in it. Meacham road, the road the hotel is directly off of has lots though. You just make a quick jaunt over the bridge that goes over the highway and there are several restaurants. Buffalo Wild Wings, Five Guys Burger and Fries, Wild Berry Pancakes and the Westwood Tavern are all right across the bridge. Woodfield Mall is also just across the bridge as is an Ikea and a Costco. There is a Target about 2.5 miles away just across Golf road. Golf road is a big main road that has a ton of places for food and supplies. There is also liquor store about a mile down Golf if you turn right at the light.

5 guys and other food in the plaza
across the street from Wild Berry.

It is on the right hand side.

The other back up hotel is right by the Pancake place as is a Marriott Residence Inn. We stayed at one of those in Lombard last year as our trip to Adepticon was shortened. We were able to go at the last minute and the room we got at the Residence Inn Marriott was very nice.SO there you go a little taste of things to come. I tried to get as many pictures as I could in the short time I had to explore. This is a very nice area. It is kinda upscale. I passed a Mercedes Dealer and a Maserati Dealer on my way to the Hotel that were very close. Well stay tuned for more Road to Adepticon updates. We are working with Adepticon to get more space to accommodate more players in the Schaumburg Prime Offensive. We are hoping to have more information next week. Until next time crush the Alliance and as always................REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!

4 comments:

I-Hobby - a convention for game and hobby store owners has been in this location for the last 2 years. I have attended both years. The staff was friendly and helpful both times, with lots of support for folks like us in jeans and t-shirts. I would not worry about "fancy", these are nice people.

I have not seen the overall layouts yet for events, but there are plenty of spaces to put things in and It should be a wonderful convention. Hope to see you there.

I am really looking forward to the convention having walked the halls. It is nice to hear from somebody who has stayed there before. I read some reviews and overall they were good. it seemed the bad ones were by people who probably were never happy.

Great to see pictures as this is my first adepticon and looking forward to the tournament. Good job on the mission pack as I played #3 today. Keep up the good work. If I have any questions about the tournament who would I address them to.

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